eFax Blog

Wednesday, April 18, 2012
by eFax Team

New Harp 2.0 broad requirements for refinancing fixed rate loans is expected to drive an influx of new business for real estate professionals.

According to industry estimates, the mortgage industry, under the new Harp 2.0 law, is anticipating as many as 6.9 million borrowers now being able to potentially qualify for new refinancing standards.

This is good news for mortgage brokers. The regulation change could lead to significant growth in new customers, bringing welcome relief to an industry that has been through one of the worst housing slumps in recent history.

But, with the increase in business comes the need to process applications more quickly, and efficiently. One tool that can help real estate professionals streamline paperwork and be more efficient is an online fax service.

The benefits of an online fax service include mobility (send and receive faxes from anywhere, even a mobile phone or iPad), and costs savings -- no need to service or maintain a traditional fax machine, or pay for a phone line.

“As a busy mortgage professional, I’m always on the go, meeting with clients and potential lenders, and this time of year has only increased the number of my responsibilities. With [an online fax service like] eFax, I never have to worry about missing any confidential documents,” said Mike Trenkle, owner of MK Mortgage. “I can send and receive faxes from anywhere, which helps me to stay on top of important deals and paperwork.”

Some of the benefits of an online fax service include:

Keep an audit trail
eFax offers unlimited lifetime storage and securely archives faxed documents online, providing an easily accessible digital audit trail. This not only improves accountability by helping lenders comply with regulations, but allows for a more organized document management system. Documents, which can be digitally stored on secure file servers, can be retrieved at anytime from anywhere.

Simplify the search for the right document
Instead of wasting time manually searching through file folders stuffed with applications, forms and signed papers, eFax incorporates search tools into faxed
documents. Queries include specific names, topics, or other keywords to find a document or group of documents. Processing time can be drastically reduced by moving from paper to eFax. (To learn more about how to tag and search faxes please watch this YouTube video.

Protect confidential data with encryption
eFax offers secure encryption alternatives to traditional fax machines. This means no more confidential faxed documents sitting next to a fax machine. Instead, with eFax Secure, faxes are encrypted and stored as a TIFF or PDF in a secure inbox.

Share large files
In today’s electronic world, businesses are often slowed down by file size constraints and attachment issues when sending and receiving information by email. This is no longer the case with eFax. An added benefit for paid accounts is the capability to reliably and securely upload and share files well over 5MB (up to 1 G) to any email address without bounce-backs or failed send attempts. Click here to see a video.

Take notes without pen or paper
eFax offers the ability to annotate faxes online. There is no printing or marking up contracts in the margins and then scanning or re-faxing with a traditional machine.

Digitized signature
Using a digitized signature means you don't have to print, sign and scan to move a document forward. Documents that need a signature can be faxed to a user’s eFax account to add a digitized signature in a snap. The approved document can then be sent along via email or fax. Please watch this video for a tutorial on eFax digitized signature: .

eFax Team
- eFax Team

eFax is the world’s #1 online fax service, and we have been for nearly 20 years. More than 11 million customers use eFax every day to send and receive business faxes online, including small businesses around the world and nearly half of the Fortune 500.